One of the Best Gifts of All

We have lived in our house for almost 5 years now. Jason and I looked at a TON of houses. Ours was the first one we both left smiling. We knew it was were we wanted to begin our life together and start our family. There wasn't much we wanted to change about it, except for this:

The run-down, abandoned house next door. It's owned by the mill on the other side and is quite the eye sore. Yet there was not much we could do about it. At the time we moved in, the fire station down the road was using it for fire drills. Eventually the house became dubbed unsafe inside and it became critter haven. In 2009, we kindly approached the owners and asked them if they would do something about it. Soon we had people going through and taking things out, ripping off siding and breaking windows out. We thought this must mean action was going to take place. Then suddenly the action stopped and the house sat silent again, in worse shape then before. So you can only imagine my excitement on December 23 when I woke up to this going on outside:

Merry Christmas to us! Farewell house, it's been nice knowing you. While we appreciated the privacy your walls provided for our backyard, we'll get over it. We'll plant some trees. We wish the critters that lived in your depths weren't currently seeking new homes elsewhere (a.k.a. our basement) this winter, but it's okay. We'll set traps. There is no more fire hazard, death trap next door. We are so glad to see you go!